The distinction I suggest is between ways language allows us to grab hold of reality with our mind—make reality thinkable. Specifically, there is a distinction to make between capturing reality in a language that does not bring the very mode of capturing reality into question, and capturing reality in a language that does. The former would be the literal, and the latter would be the figurative way of using language.
The use of literal language typically does not indicate in itself that there is any problem capturing reality. The cogwheels of our mind run smoothly; they are unproblematically turned by the cogwheels of reality. So much so, that we don’t typically stop to wonder at how this is made possible—how remarkable it is that things around us allow us to think about them. And then again, who has times for such wonders anyway. In any case, the literal expression does not draw attention to itself. It does its work and is not given a second thought; it is dispensed with. It is like a flashlight that allows us to make reality visible, thinkable, but in itself is of no interest. The logical structure of reality is unproblematically captured by literal language, pictured by it. Language thus makes reality thinkable; we can see into reality through language.
The use of figurative language, on the other hand, maintains some distance from reality. The figurative expression is a dark glass. It draws attention to itself. You can see that it is a picture. You can see the effort it makes to make reality thinkable. The figurative expression is an attempt to capture the logical structure of reality, which cannot be quite sure of its own success. It cannot be sure that it could close the gap between mind and world, language and reality. Its distance from reality gives the figurative expression a deeper feel. Through it, we don’t only see reality, but also ourselves seeing reality—attempting to picture it, become intimate with it, make it thinkable.
We sometimes want to open up such a gap between mind and world. Sometimes, it is something we are interested in: rethink our modes of thought. The use of figurative language allows us to express that. But this distance between mind and world, in the atypical occasions when we encounter it, is not necessarily voluntary—not necessarily something we did. The use of figurative language may be due to the logical structure of reality being uncertain or unclear. Reality, it may be felt, is there to be captured. We see it; we want to say something about it. But still, we cannot see it clearly; language does not run smoothly. The distance between it and us may thus be forced on us. It may be the case, that is, that the linguistic categories we have somehow fall short of making reality properly thinkable.
We may resolve this, in some cases at least, by resorting to literal language—by capturing reality with the categories we do have. But the use of figurative language may indicate that there is something unsatisfactory about that—that literal language may only make things look smooth, but will ultimately conceal something. Something more needs to be captured; something more needs to be made thinkable.
Let me emphasize that the categories ‘literal’ and ‘figurative’ as I am using them here are categories of use. That is, I suggest that we do something different—the intention is different—when we use language literally and when we use it figuratively.
It is part of the semantic intention of both literal and figurative uses of expressions to make reality thinkable. I take it that this is in general part of what it is to be a semantic intention in the first place—to make reality thinkable. However, the intention in the case of figurative use of expressions is more complex than in the literal case. The figurative expression does not only try to make reality thinkable, it also involves a kind of commentary on the way it makes reality thinkable: The use of a figurative expression involves the intention to contemplate the way in which reality is made thinkable. This further dimension of our mind’s relation to reality, made visible by figurative expressions, is at least part of what gives the sense that they capture something deep.